My Lotus Blossom
by Tempest314
Summary: GaixOC. A beautiful friendship between Gai-sensei and an original character of mine, Michi. Throughout a small portion of a storyline, feelings are confessed. I suck at summaries, sorry. Oh, and IT'S FLUFFY. Complete for now, may write more for it later.
1. Chapter 1

Hello there...this is my second fic to be published on here. I apologize if this is too fluffy, OOC, or something. The pairing is Gai-sensei and an original character. Don't like, don't read. Reviews...please be nice. ^_^'

Since I am using an original fic, I thought it would be a good idea to give some background info on her...

Name: Michi Mitsuya

Gender: Female

Age: 21 (in this story, all the canon characters are about this age)

Rank: Jounin

Michi is a nice, strong kunoichi...she admires Gai-sensei and Rock Lee. She loves taijutsu, and uses wood style jutsu as well. She has a great sense of humor. There's not too much to say about her, everything you need to know is in the fic.

I apologize for any inconsistencies or anything on my part...I hope at least one person enjoys this. As of now, it's just a two-shot, unless people like it enough (which I'm seriously doubting). Constructive criticism is nice, but like I said...please be nice. xD

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. If I did...well...I wouldn't have to write this, now would I? Besides, I could never write and/or draw as well as Kishimoto-sama. I only own my OC, Michi. And the evil, evil little plot bunny.**

**Update (12/22/09): Ok, so I went through and corrected as many errors as I caught...please let me know if I missed anything! Thanks. ;)**

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-Michi's POV-

Yawning, I sighed in relief as the gates into Konoha became visible. I had just finished a very hard A-ranked mission on my own and I was _very_ tired. Reaching the gates, I saw Kotetsu.

"Good morning, Michi-chan, it's good to see you back from the mission unscathed," Kotetsu-san said.

"Thanks Kotetsu-san, it was a pretty hard mission. I'm just tired and happy to be home," I laughed.

"Well you're well on your well to being able to get some sleep. As usual, just file your report with Hokage-sama and you'll be good to go," he said. I smiled at him and went straight to the Hokage's Mansion.

I arrived quickly, since I was eager to get home and sleep, and knocked on the door of Hokage's office.

"Come in!" I heard Hokage-sama call. I opened the door and walked in.

"Welcome back, Michi-chan. How did the mission go?" she asked.

"It was rather tough..." I said and went into the boring details of my mission. It might have been a tough mission, but it was by no means all that interesting.

"Very nice work, Michi-chan. Get yourself home and rest. Rest well. I'll probably have to send you out on another mission soon." Hokage-sama dismissed me.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," I said and left.

I was eager to just go home, but as soon as I walked past Ichiraku, my stomach grumbled. I moaned, looked at the ramen bar, and sighed. It wouldn't hurt to take a few minutes to get something to eat, would it? My stomach growled in response. I sighed and walked into Ichiraku. Inside, I saw many familar faces...and really, Ichiraku was quite packed today. Looking around, I saw there was really only one seat open and that was at the bar, right next to Gai-senpai. So I walked over there and plopped myself down next to him.

"Good morning, Michi-chan! Isn't it such a youthful morning?!" Gai-senpai exclaimed.

"It is, Gai-senpai," I smiled. He frowned.

"Now how many times have I told you to drop the whole 'senpai' thing, Michi-chan?" He asked and was smiling again.

"Well, you tell me every time I call you it, so I don't know," I laughed. I hurried up and ordered a bowl of cold soba noodles.

"You are of the same rank as me, Michi-chan, and are as talented and youthful as I, so please call me Gai-san," he said. I caught the look he was giving me and sighed.

"Alright, Gai-sen--er, Gai-san," I said, laughing. "This is going to be a hard habit to break."

"So would you fancy some training and sparring today, Michi-chan?" he asked. I about died. The thought of training was enough to make me nearly pass out.

"I can't today, Gai-san, I just returned from an A-ranked mission and am EXHAUSTED. I'm sorry," I apologized.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I had forgotten about that mission!" he smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. My soba noodles had arrived and I began to eat like I had never eaten before. Gai-san was laughing at me.

"You eat with such youthful grace, Michi-chan!" he exclaimed as a rather large bowl of ramen was placed in front of him.

"And you eat with such a youthful appetite, Gai-san," I laughed. People around us were giving us, especially me, odd looks. I rolled my eyes at them and continued eating. I had slowed my pace down so I wouldn't make myself sick.

"How did your mission go, Michi-chan?" Gai-san asked.

"It went well. It was a tough one and quite long, but I got the job done," I said.

"I would expect nothing less from you!" he grinned.

Soon enough, we were both finished eating and I was about to leave.

"I'm sorry that I can't train with you today, Gai-san, perhaps we'll train tomorrow?" I said.

"That would be wonderful, Michi-chan!" he exclaimed. "Tomorrow at 5AM where we normally train, right?"

"Yes," I confirmed, smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow, then." I began to walk out of Ichiraku.

"Wait! Allow me to walk you home, Michi-chan." I turned around.

"Alright." So I allowed Gai-san to walk me home. It didn't take long to reach my apartment.

"Thank you for the company at Ichiraku and for walking me home, Gai-san. I'll see you tomorrow," I said with a smile.

"It was my pleasure, Michi-chan! I will see you tomorrow!" he exclaimed and left. I waved after him.

I walked into my apartment and giggled a bit. Gai-san was so cute. I went into my bedroom and flopped onto my bed without even bothering to change out of my ninja clothes. I was too damn tired. A nice change of clothes and a nice, long shower would have to wait for later. For now, I just wanted some sleep!

I awoke later that day. It wasn't evening yet, it was only about 4-ish, so I decided to grab a bite to eat and then go train for a bit. Maybe go see if I could find Gai-san. First though, a nice shower and change of clothes was in order. I took a nice, long shower and though I was sore, I felt pretty good. The fresh clothes added to that feeling as well. I stepped into my kitchen and made a small and light, but filling, dinner. It tasted delicious. I mean, during the mission I didn't have much good food to eat. After dinner, I walked out the door, then locked it. I took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Ah, feels so good out here today," I said to myself. I looked around. I immediately headed toward where I was pretty sure Gai-san would be training with his old team. Sure, Lee-kun, Neji-kun, and Tenten-chan had all grown up a good bit, but they still trained together as a team and went on missions as a team. They were very close-knit.

As soon as I arrived, I heard them training, and I smiled. I decided to watch them for a while before I went and interrupted their training. I had been watching for about five minutes when I felt a presence behind me, and that's when I noticed that Gai-san had left or something.

"Ah! Michi-chan, it's just you!" I heard Gai-san exclaim behind me. "I had felt another presence around here and decided to take a look for myself. Enough spying, come on and train with us!" I turned to face him, giving him a sheepish grin.

"Alright, Gai-san! I was actually going to come out in a few minutes to do just that, but unsurprisingly you found me before I had the chance!" I laughed. We walked over to where the other three were training.

"Michi-chan!" Lee-kun exclaimed, excited to see me. I smiled at him. Lee-kun was one of my favorite people, alongside Gai-san.

"Hello Lee-kun! And hello to you too, Tenten-chan and Neji-kun!" I greeted.

"It's about time you came out, Michi-chan. I felt your presence there five minutes ago," Neji-kun said with a smirk. I grinned.

"Well, I didn't want to interrupt..."

"Nonsense! Now come on, let us train on this youthful day!" Gai-san said, and that's exactly what we did. First Gai-san, Lee-kun and I did some taijutsu training as Neji-kun and Tenten-chan worked on target practice, and we all just sort of rotated. It was a nice routine we had going.

"Wow, your aim is getting much better, Michi-chan!" Tenten said a few minutes into our target practice.

"Heh, thanks Tenten-chan! I've been working on it," I said.

"I can tell. Have you been having any luck with your flying sparrow?" Tenten-chan asked. I pulled out my tanto.

"Sure have! Watch this tree get cut down!" I exclaimed, then focused my chakra. The blade of the tanto was illuminated with my chakra running through the blade. "FLYING SPARROW!" I cried as I dashed toward the tree. I went to hit the tree, but swerved and avoided it before I could run my blade through it. I stopped behind the tree and looked at the solid cut through the trunk of the tree, even though I hadn't cut it with the physical tanto blade. It was purely chakra that cut the tree.

"Wow!" Tenten-chan exclaimed as the tree started to fall. When it began to fall, I quickly formed some handseals and wood came up from the earth and propped the tree up. I focused my chakra and repaired the tree using my wood-style jutsu.

"And it looks like your wood jutsu have gotten better too," Neji-kun added.

"It has. I had a lot of time to train before I was sent on the mission I returned from today. Good thing, too, I definitely needed it," I laughed.

"So full of energy and youth!" Gai-san exclaimed with pride. Tears were streaming down his face. I laughed while blushing.

We trained for a couple hours more, until it was almost dark.

"Alright, I'm sad to say it team, but it is time we end our training for the day! But you all did a very good job!" Gai-san exclaimed. We were all pretty exhausted, and to be honest I was surprised that, even with that nap, I was able to keep up with them so well today. We all went our seperate ways.

"Michi-chan!" Gai-san called after me and then ran to catch up with me. "You were very impressive today! Very good job!"

"Thank you Gai-san," I said, blushing slightly.

"Allow me to escort you home once more!"

"Of course, Gai-san," I laughed. We began the walk home.

"So are we still on for tomorrow, Michi-chan? Tomorrow it will just be you and I!"

"Of course we are! I'm looking forward to it." And I really was. Training with Gai-san, though EXHAUSTING, was so much fun. We walked through the village and the streets were mostly empty.

"As am I!" And then I saw a mischevious grin spread across Gai-san's face. Before I knew what was going on, he had lifted me up onto his back (like a piggy back ride) and was sprinting through the streets of Konoha.

"Whoa!!" I laughed and held onto him tight. I blushed a little as I realized that even after a hard day of training, he still smelled pretty good. Especially his hair...

"And here we are, Michi-chan!" We had stopped abruptly and were in front of the door to my apartment. I was laughing.

"Wanted to get a bit more training in today, Gai-san?"

"Of course!" He smiled and gave me a thumbs-up.

"Want to come in and get something to drink before you dash home?" I asked.

"Wha-? Oh, uh, sure!" he replied, obviously surprised by my question. He followed me inside and I immediately went to the kitchen to get him a large glass of water.

"It's a mess in here, Gai-san, but I normally don't have people over, so my apologies," I grinned sheepishly as I handed him the glass of water.

"It is not a problem at all, Michi-chan! You have a lovely home!" he said as he accepted the glass of water from me. He soon finished and I was walking him to the door.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Michi-chan! I shall see you in the morning!" Gai-san exclaimed and gave a slight bow.

"It's no problem, Gai-san. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight," I said and, to his surprise, gave him a friendly hug. He blushed.

"G-goodnight, Michi-chan!" he said and left. I giggled and went to prepare to take another shower.

Twenty minutes later, I was showered and ready for bed. The rest was, once again, much needed. Especially since I was going to train with Gai-san tomorrow morning, bright and early. I fell asleep quickly.

The next morning I woke up at about 4:30AM. It was far too early for my liking, but considering the reason I was up so early, I wasn't going to complain at all. I made a small and light breakfast and quickly headed to the training grounds. I was a bit early, but I had a hunch that Gai-san was already there...

"Good morning, Michi-chan! Did you sleep well?" Gai-san greeted me as soon as I arrived at the training grounds.

"I did, Gai-san. How about you? And good morning to you as well," I said.

"I slept quite well too!" he said. We immediately began our training.

After about 6 and half hours of sparring, with only a half-hour break, we decided that it was time to go get some lunch.

"Where would you like to eat lunch at, Michi-chan? It will be my treat!" Gai-san said.

"That's not necessary, Gai-san," I said.

"But I would like to treat you to some good food!" Gai-san persisted. I knew I wasn't going to win this one, so I let it drop.

"Alright, Gai-san. Thank you! And how about lunch at," I paused to think. I wanted to go somewhere slightly cheaper, too. "Ichiraku?"

"Ichiraku sounds wonderful!" So we went to Ichiraku. Rather, we _raced_ to Ichiraku. He won, of course, but not by much. People were giving us incredulous looks as we dashed into Ichiraku, with Gai-san announcing rather loudly that he was the winner.

"Yes, you won, Gai-san," I laughed. We were seated and placed our orders immediately. Cold soba noodles for me, as usual, and miso ramen for Gai-san.

"As much I do love the youthful experience of training, I must admit that taking a nice break to eat a delicious lunch is quite nice as well!" Gai-san exclaimed and I agreed. Our ramen (and soba) was served quickly and were devoured just as quickly by the two of us. Soon enough, we were back at the training field.

"Ready to resume, Michi-chan?" Gai-san asked.

"Hai!" I replied. And our training resumed, quite vigorously. A couple of hours had passed, the training becoming more and more intense as the time passed by.

During a sparring match, I had perched myself in a tree to launch myself at Gai-san for a strategy I had concocted during the match. Before I knew it, though, the limb I had been perched on snapped and fell from beneath me, and before I had the chance to react I was plummeting through the other limbs and branches toward the ground. When I hit the ground, it hurt like hell.

"Oooooh...ouch..." I moaned.

"MICHI-SAN!!" I heard Gai-san cry as he rushed toward me. "Are you alright?" Everything was spinning.

"I...I think so..." I said right as I blacked out.

When I woke up, I wasn't really aware of where I was. The place I was at smelled funky, and it was very white...my eyes finally focused and I realized that I was in the hospital (hence the funky smell of the medicines and medical supplies). My head hurt like hell, and I groaned in pain.

"Michi-chan!!!!" I heard someone exclaim next to me. I winced at the loudness of his voice and then realized the loud, worried voice belong to Maito Gai.

"Agh, not so loud, Gai-san," I said, groaning in pain again.

"I apologize, Michi-chan," Gai-san said. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Huh?" I sat there and thought. Oh yeah, we had been training when I had fallen out of a tree. "Yeah, I had an accident while we were training. Fell out of a tree."

"I am so sorry Michi-chan, I should have known better than to have you partake in such vigorous and strenuous training only a day after returning from an A-ranked mission! And even moreso because you trained with us last night, just hours after returning from that mission!" I looked over at Gai-san, and he looked guilty.

"Gai-san, I wanted to train that hard. If I didn't want to, I'd have said something. Like to tone it down a few notches or something. You hold no blame," I said and smiled at him.

"Ah, it's good to see you're finally awake, Michi-chan!" Sakura-chan said as she walked into the room. "You took a pretty hard hit to the head. Luckily you only have a mild concussion. You really _do_ have a hard head. As for the rest of your body, you obtained only a few sprains. Your sprains will be fine in a few days, but we'll need to check your head again in about a couple of days. In the meantime, NO TRAINING." Sakura-chan glanced at Gai-san as she said this.

I frowned. "Finally awake? Huh? How long had I been out? And the concussion would explain why my head hurts like all holy hell..."

"Oddly, you were out for about fourteen hours. We don't know why you were out for _that_ long; it was very odd. That's why we want to check your head again so soon. Normally we'd have you check back in about a week or so, but since you were out so long, we want to check a couple times over the next week. And again, I must stress, NO TRAINING."

"Fourteen hours? From just a bump on the head? Sheesh, I must be getting weak or something." Then noticing the look on Sakura-chan's face, I quickly smiled and added, "I won't train. I promise."

"Good." Then Sakura-chan narrowed her eyes at me. "And you being out so long could be because _someone_ has been overdoing her training without even realizing it."

"I felt fine, I honestly did. It felt no different than any other time I trained," I said, puzzled.

"Well, Michi-chan, coming home from an A-ranked mission, taking a nap, then going right back out to train that _night_ and then training vigorously the entire next day was not exactly wise. Your body needs more rest to restore that amount of chakra."

I grinned sheepishly. "Oops?" Sakura-chan then turned to talk to Gai-san.

"And Gai-sensei, you need to go home and get some rest. You trained all day yesterday and then stayed here all night. You should've at least _slept,_ especially after I specifically told you she'd be perfectly fine! If you're not careful, you'll land yourself in the hospital next!" I looked at Gai-san and noticed the bags underneath his eyes.

"GAI-SAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was just a small fall! That's no reason to worry yourself like that," I said even though I knew it was no use. He could make the biggest deal out of some of the smallest things. Then I smiled at him. "Thank you for caring, though." I laughed. Sakura-chan gave me an odd look.

"But it was my fault---"

"Alright, Gai-sensei, out of the room now. I wanted to check her over once more before I discharge her," Sakura-chan ordered. He complied. Once he was out of the room, she simply checked me over.

"What's with you two?" she asked when she was finished and was working on the necessary paperwork.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I looked at her oddly.

"Is there something going on between you and Gai-sensei?"

"What? No," I said and blushed slightly.

"Alright. Anyway, Michi-chan, I am being dead serious when I say no training. I'll let you know when you can begin again. I think you had drained too much of your chakra in a small amount of time, and then the blow to the head certainly didn't help with that."

"Maybe you're right. Ok, no training for me. Not until I have your consent, Sakura-chan."

"Good. You're free to go," she said and then pointed to a stack of my freshly laundered clothes.

"Thanks," I said. I changed quickly and walked out of the door.

"You've been discharged? Great!" Gai-san said. "Please, allow me to treat you to some homemade food."

"You don't have to, Gai-san," I said.

"I insist!" he exclaimed, giving me the "good guy" pose. I couldn't resist that.

"Alright, Gai-san."

"Good!" With that, he picked me up and gave me a piggy back ride to his apartment.

"You know, it's only my head that is slightly hurt, I can still walk," I laughed.

"I know," was his only replied. He set me down on the couch. "Now, rest here as I whip us up a wonderful lunch!" I laid down and without meaning to, fell asleep.

"Michi-chan, I apologize for having to wake you up, but your lunch is ready!" Gai-san said, gently waking me up.

"Huh? Oh, uhm, thank you Gai-san. I apologize for falling asleep," I laughed, embarassed. I got up and we ate together at the table.

"Gai-san, this is DELICIOUS!!!" I exclaimed. I had no clue that Gai-san was such a fantastic cook. "Thank you for the best lunch I've eaten in ages!"

Gai-san blushed. "It was my pleasure, Michi-chan. And thank you for your kind words!"

Too soon, lunch was over.

"Well, Gai-san, I will head home now. You really need to get some sleep," I said.

"Nonsense, I am fine!" he exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Get some rest...for me, please?" I said.

"Alright. But I will check on you later, Michi-chan!" Gai-san resolved as we walked to the door.

"You're so sweet, Gai-san," I giggled. "Thank you for taking such good care of me." I hugged him and headed home.

Once home, I changed into some lighter clothing and went straight to bed to rest. My head was hurting terribly, with good reason. I soon fell asleep.

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Kind of an odd place to end a chapter, methinks, but I did it mostly to switch character POVs in a way that made most sense to me. o.O Yeaaahhh...


	2. Chapter 2

Here's chapter 2...and perhaps the final chapter. Like I said in chapter 1, it really depends on if people like it. I hope someone is enjoying this.

**Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Naruto. I am not Masashi Kishimoto. I do, however, own my OC, Michi. That is all I own. And maybe the little plot bunny...**

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-Gai's POV-

Michi-chan had just left my apartment and I felt my face still burning slighty, from blushing as she had hugged me. She really affected me. I cared for all of my comrades, especially my own team (Lee-kun, Neji-kun, and Tenten-chan), but what I felt for Michi-chan was different. I was ashamed of my feelings toward her. I mean, I was a bit older than her...and besides, who would want to be seen with _me_? While I was proud of who I was, I was often very lonely. No girl wanted to be seen with someone like me. I sighed.

I had told Michi-chan that I was going to go rest, so I went to my bed and fell asleep very quickly.

When I woke up, it was nearly dark. I cursed myself for sleeping so long, since I still needed to check up on Michi-chan. Looking outside, I realized that she was probably asleep. Sighing, I decided that I would have to wait until morning to check on her. I sat up in my bed, trying to think if there was anything I could do tonight before going back to sleep. I wanted to go back to sleep, but I had skipped out on training today and felt lazy for that reason. So I decided that I needed to at least do _something_. I got out of bed and began a small training session inside my bedroom consisting of 500 push-ups, 500 sit-ups, and 500 jumping jacks. I hurried up and did my warm-up stretches, then began my jumping jacks.

"Ichi! Nii! San! Shi! Go! Roku!" I counted out loud as I did each jumping jack.

A few hours later, I had finished that very simple training. Noticing that it was nearly midnight, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to go back to sleep. Tomorrow was a new day and I would just have to train harder to make up for today. Once again, I fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, I had woken up later than usual. Skipping breakfast, I immediately went to check on Michi-chan.

"Good morning, Gai-san!" Michi-chan greeted as she opened the door. "I just made some breakfast, please come in and join me."

She looked so good in the morning...wearing a simple tank top and shorts, hair still slightly messy. I tried to calm down my thoughts, but it just wasn't working well.

"I would love to, Michi-chan!" I said. She smiled and I walked into her apartment and followed her into the kitchen. She made me a plate of food and set it before me.

"I don't think my cooking is as good as yours, but I don't think it's terrible, either," she laughed. "Enjoy!" We both began to dig in.

"Mmm! This is good, Michi-chan!" I said. "I think it much better than my cooking."

She blushed. "Oh, I disagree Gai-san, but thank you!"

We were both nearly finished eating when she spoke again.

"So, Gai-san, what are you doing for the rest of the day?"

"Huh? I've got the day off, actually," I replied. "I'll go train."

"Oh, of course. After you're finished for the day, would you like to come back here and keep me company?" Michi-chan asked, laughing a little.

"I would love to, Michi-chan!" I replied, maybe a little too enthusiastically.

"Good," she replied, grinning.

"I will see you in a few hours then," I said.

I went straight to the training field where I found Lee-kun training already. I decided that it would be great to train with him today, especially I hadn't seen him the day before.

"Lee-kun! It is great to see you training on this youthful day!" I exclaimed.

"GAI-SENSEI!" Lee-kun cried and halted his training. "I missed you yesterday, it would appear! Would you like to train with me today?"

"Of course, Lee-kun!" With that, we began to train vigorously. Time was flying by and I was having a blast training one-on-one with Lee-kun, plus I was definitely making up for my lack of training yesterday.

"You seem very focused today, Gai-sensei!" Lee-kun observed as we were taking a break. He was right, I was more focused than usual. Partly because I needed to make up for yesterday and partly because it seemed as if the harder we trained, the faster time flew by and the sooner it was for me to go see Michi-chan.

"That I am, Lee-kun!" I smiled at my star pupil. "I missed out on training yesterday, so I needed to make up for it today!"

"What?! How did you miss out on training yesterday?" Lee-kun asked, surprised.

"I had spent the previous night at the hospital and didn't sleep at all. So I had to take the day off to rest," I explained. Lee-kun was immediately worried.

"What?! Why were you in the hospital, Gai-sensei?! Are you alright?" Lee-kun asked.

"I wasn't in the hospital Lee-kun, I was perfectly fine. I had been training with Michi-chan during the day and she had a bit of an accident and was knocked unconcious! She didn't wake until about 8AM. I stayed with her that night in the hospital," I explained.

"Is Michi-chan ok?!" Lee-kun asked.

"Yes, she's ok. She has a mild concussion. Sakura-chan thinks she was out so long because she had been using up so much chakra in such little time!" I gave him a thumbs-up. I noticed the sun was beginning to set a little. It must be dinner time. "How about we call it a day, Lee-kun?"

"What? Oh, yeah, sure."

"Great! How about we train together again tomorrow?" I suggested.

"That would be great, sensei!" Lee-kun exclaimed. We parted ways with an exuberant hug.

I decided that it would be best if I went home, took a shower and freshened up before I went over there. I didn't want to smell too badly. I did all of this in record speed and was soon back at Michi-chan's apartment. On my way there, I had stopped by the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Ino-chan came up to me to ask if I needed help with something.

"Indeed I do, Ino-chan!" I said. "I am in need of some beautiful lotus flowers!"

"Ah, buying them for a special lady?" she pried for information.

"For a dear friend," I replied.

"Really? Dare I ask who it is?"

I laughed. "I think it is best not to know, Ino-chan." She scowled playfully, then brought out some flowers for me to look at.

"What do you think of these, Gai-sensei?" she asked. I looked over them in awe.

"These are perfect, Ino-chan! I will take them! Thank you!" I smiled and paid for the flowers.

"Very good choice, Gai-sensei. Michi-chan will adore these," she gave me a knowing smile. I was shocked. How did she know? Then it hit me. This _is_ Sakura-chan's best friend. Did Sakura-chan tell her about the hospital stay? Probably.

"I n-never said these were for her..." I stuttered, blushing like a fool.

"Have a good day, Gai-sensei!" Ino-chan gave me a sadistic smile and sent me on my way. I hurried to Michi-chan's apartment.

I knocked on the door and it was opened immediately.

"Good, Gai-san, you're just in time!" Michi-chan exclaimed, then winced. Her head must still hurt. "With all this free time, I made a rather large dinner. And I just finished preparing it. Come in and eat. I hope it's as good as it smells." She laughed. I followed her inside and her entire apartment smelled DELICIOUS. We sat down to eat and she wasn't lying, it was a rather large dinner. Somehow we managed to eat nearly all of it. It was some of the best food I'd ever tasted in my life, and I told her as much. She blushed.

"You're so sweet, Gai-san," she said. Then I remembered the flowers.

"Oh yes, I nearly forgot, Michi-chan!" I hurried outside to get the flowers. I had stashed them outside. Hurrying back inside, she looked puzzled. "I brought you something, which I hope you will like!" I gave her the bunch of lotus flowers. She was blushing and grinning from ear to ear.

"T-thank you Gai-san! These are beautiful! I love them!" She hurriedly filled a decorative bowl with water and placed the lotuses on top of the water, floating about. She gave me a hug and planted a small kiss on my cheek. I couldn't help but blush.

"And thank you for keeping me company, it is boring and lonely not being able to go out and train. I've stayed in because my head will randomly just begin to hurt terribly," she said gratefully.

"It is my pleasure, Michi-chan!" We sat down on the couch together and began to talk. We talked about damn near anything and everything, including dating.

"So Michi-chan, have any lucky shinobi in the village managed to court you successfully?" I asked. I probably shouldn't have asked, since I would probably get jealous of what ever lucky shinobi did manage to win her heart.

"Huh? Oh, good grief no. No one has ever even _tried_. There are far prettier kunoichi in this village than me and the guys just don't want anything to do with me. There is only one shinobi I want to notice me, anyway, and he hasn't," she said, sighing sadly. "What about you, Gai-san? Surely some beautiful, strong kunoichi has managed to grab your attention and heart?"

I was shocked by what she had just said, but part of me felt relieved. I felt guilty for that, though.

"Michi-chan, if he hasn't noticed you, then is truly is a fool! And yes, the most beautiful kunoichi in all of Konoha, the strongest kunoichi in Konoha...she has captured my heart. She has no interest in me, though. No woman ever could. I am an embarassment. I am repulsive," I replied. I gauged her reaction. First she looked sad, then angry. I sighed. It wasn't something I voiced often...in fact, the only person I had ever voiced this to was my eternal rival, Hatake Kakashi. I was lonely and it depressed me. I hid it well, though.

"MAITO GAI, YOU ARE IN NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM REPULSIVE!!! If this lucky kunoichi cannot realize how wonderful you are, it is truly her loss. She isn't worth your time and effort, Gai-san. You are _not_ an embarassment. You are the strongest man I know. You deserve only the best, Gai-san," she said. There was nothing more I wanted to do at this moment than kiss her. She really had no clue that I had referring to her.

"Oh but Michi-chan...she is worth all the time and effort in the world. I would protect her with my life." We were silent for a few minutes.

"Who is it?" we asked each other at the same exact time. We looked at each, surprised. Neither one of us said anything.

"It...G-Gai-san, it's..._you_," she finally managed to say. She looked down, unable to look at me. I was in shock. "If the kunoichi you love...can't see you, can't see that you are precious...she's blind." I reached over and pulled her close to me. I cupped her face with my hands and kissed her with as much passion as I was able to muster.

She looked at me, shocked. "But what---"

"She's not blind, Michi-chan. Because she saw me the entire time, I just didn't know it," I said. Her eyes widened as she realized what I was saying. Her eyes teared up, but she was grinning from ear to ear. Before I knew what was happening, she was on top of me giving me the best damn kiss of my life. I held her close to me.

"I will protect you with my life, Michi-chan. I love you," I said.

"I love you too, Gai-san," she said.

* * *

See? FLUFFY. But I enjoyed writing it. That's it...for now. Thanks for reading. ^_^  
Oh!!!!! And I really hope you all caught the pun I threw in there. I absolutely love puns…and it made me laugh.


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